Benches and Grandma’s Ears: Zimbabwe’s New Mental Health Treatment Spreads Abroad

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Tambudzai Tembo is devastated after her son, the light of her family and sole breadwinner, was arrested last year. In Zimbabwe, where clinical mental health services are rare, her access to professional help was close to zero. He was thinking about suicide.

“I didn’t want to live anymore. People who saw me would think everything was fine. But inside, my head was spinning,” said the 57-year-old. “I was alone.”

A wooden bench and a sympathetic grandmother saved him.

Elderly people are in mental health treatment centers in Zimbabwe that are now being relocated to places like the United States.

This method involves placing benches in quiet and peaceful corners of public hospitals, some churches, poor neighborhoods and universities. An older woman with basic problem-solving therapy training sits there patiently, listening and ready for a one-on-one conversation.

The treatment is inspired by traditional Zimbabwean practices where grandmothers seek wisdom in difficult times. It has been abandoned due to urbanization, the breakdown of close-knit families, and modern technology. Now, it’s becoming useful again as mental health needs grow.

“Grandmothers are the preservers of local culture and knowledge. They are rooted in their own community,” says psychology professor Dixon Chibanda, founder of the initiative. “They won’t go away, and what’s more, they have an amazing ability to use what we call ’empathic expression’ … to make people respect and understand.”

Last year, Chibanda was named the winner of a $150,000 prize from the US-based McNulty Foundation for revolutionizing mental health. Chibanda said the concept was based in parts of Vietnam, Botswana, Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania and was undergoing “preliminary development” in London.

New York City said it was “inspired” by the Friendship Bench to help address risk factors such as social isolation in a new mental health plan unveiled last year. Orange benches are now in Harlem, Brooklyn, and the Bronx.

In Washington, HelpAge USA is testing this concept as part of the DC Grandparents for Mental Health Initiative, which began in 2022 as a COVID-19 support group for people 60 and older.

Cindy Cox-Roman said 20 grandmothers were trained by Zimbabwe’s Friendship Bench team to “stop the stigma of mental health and make it okay to talk about feelings”. , president and CEO of HelpAge USA.

Places of worship, schools and health centers in Washington’s low-income communities will include pews with people who have been “historically marginalized and face mental health issues.”

Cox-Roman cites fear and mistrust of the medical system, lack of social support, and stigma as some of the factors limiting access to treatment.

“People are sick, and grandma can always make you feel better,” she said.

“Our aging population has a lot of wisdom and hands to unlock. I defy ageism. “Sometimes age brings wisdom that you don’t learn until you’re older,” said one of the grandmothers, 81-year-old Barbara Allen, in a promotional video.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, one in five adults in the United States is living with a mental illness.

“The mental health crisis is real. “The real crisis after the pandemic is that many doctors have left the workforce,” said Dr. Jehan El-Mayoumi, an analyst at HelpAge USA and founding director of the Rodham Institute for Health Equity at Georgetown University. . He fought to get psychiatrists for suicidal patients.

El-Mayoumi says the Zimbabwean concept provides people with “someone you can trust, someone you can open your heart to and share your deepest secrets with (and) trust, so that’s what’s great about the Friendship Bench.”

This idea was born out of a tragedy. Chibanda was a young psychiatrist, one of only 10 in Zimbabwe in 2005. One of his patients desperately wanted to see him, but couldn’t afford the $15 bus fare. Chibanda later found out that he had been tricked.

“I realized I needed to be stronger in the community,” Chibanda said. “In fact, I realized that the most valuable resource is these grandmothers, the keepers of local culture.”

She recruited 14 midwives from the neighborhood near the hospital where she worked in the capital, Harare, and trained them. In Zimbabwe, they get $25 a month to help with transportation and phone bills.

Currently, this network, which is cooperating with the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization, has grown to more than 2,000 grandmothers across the country. According to the network, more than 200,000 Zimbabweans have sat on the bench in 2023 to receive treatment from their trained grandmother.

The grandmother, Siridzai Zukwa, who says Tembo took her own life, recently inspected the house. He used a written questionnaire to check Tembo’s progress. He heard Tembo talk about how he had found a new idea in his life and was now making a living by selling vegetables.

Zukwa has become a recognizable figure in the area. People thank him for his help and stop to greet him. Some ask to visit their home or get their number.

“People are no longer embarrassed or afraid to stop us on the street and ask to talk,” he said. “Mental health is no longer something to be ashamed of.”

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